Feminist psychology

Feminist psychology is a form of psychology centered on social structures and gender. Feminist psychology critiques historical psychological research as done from a male perspective with the view that males are the norm. Feminist psychology is oriented on the values and principles of feminism. Feminist psychology is a form of psychology centered on social structures and gender. Feminist psychology critiques historical psychological research as done from a male perspective with the view that males are the norm. Feminist psychology is oriented on the values and principles of feminism. Gender issues can include the way people identify their gender (male, female, genderqueer; transgender or cisgender), how they have been affected by societal structures related to gender (gender hierarchy), the role of gender in the individual's life (such as stereotypical gender roles), and any other gender related issues. The objective behind this field of study is to understand the individual within the larger social and political aspects of society. Feminist psychology puts a strong emphasis on women's rights. Psychoanalysis took shape as a clinical or therapeutic method, feminism as a political strategy (Buhle, 1998). The term feminist psychology was originally coined by Karen Horney. In her book, Feminine Psychology, which is a collection of articles Horney wrote on the subject from 1922–1937, she addresses previously held beliefs about women, relationships, and the effect of society on female psychology. The beginning of psychology research presents very little in the way of female psychology. Many women did not fight against oppression because they did not realize they were oppressed in the first place (Ruck, 2015). Once the functionalist movement came about in the United States, academic psychology's study of sex difference and a prototypic psychology of woman were developed. In 1942 Edward Strecker made 'mom-ism' an official pathological syndrome under the APA. He believed that the country was under threat because mothers weren't emotionally disconnecting from their children at a young enough age, and the matriarchy was making young men weak and losing their 'man power'. This fueled that anti-feminist movement; women were in need of psychotherapy to aid their mental illness and further prevent the spread of maternalism. The psychological damage on the family would be severe if a woman chose a career to satisfy her needs as opposed to her feminine domestic role assigned by society – a woman's happiness was not important, she must follow her role. The effect of women having independent thoughts and a thirst for exploring her options was a huge threat to gender, as it resulted in masculinized women and feminized men, apparently confounding the nation's youth and dooming their future. Constantinople and Bem both agreed that men and women possess masculinity and femininity, and that having both is being psychologically androgynous and a cause to be psychologically fixed or evaluated. Esther Greenglass states that in 1972, the field of psychology was still male-dominated, women were totally excluded. The use of the word women in conjunction with psychology was forbidden, men refused to be excluded from the narrative. In her experience of teaching class, or being assistant professors, they had to phrase it in the interest of human beings or gender. Unger's paper 'Toward a Redefinition of Sex and Gender' said that the use of gender showed the separation of biological and psychological sex. Psychology of women is feminist because it says women are different from men and that women's behavior cannot be understood outside of context. Feminists in turn compelled psychoanalysts to consider the implications of one of Freud's own, most uncompromising propositions: 'that human beings consist of men and women and that this distinction is the most significant one that exists' (Buhl, 1998). In Liberating Minds: Consciousness-Raising as a Bridge Between Feminism and Psychology in 1970s Canada, Nora Ruck leads with, 'U.S. radical feminist Irene Peslikis warned that equating women's liberating with individual therapy prevented women from truly understanding and fighting the roots of their oppression'. Canada was one of the few countries with an academic category within psychology for feminism. They relied on CR (consciousness raising) groups to build their movement. Ruck describes the process of these CR groups by 'bridging the tensions' between the personal and political. The development of CR as a political method in its own right is widely attributed to the New York-based radical feminist collective 'Redstockings' (Echols, 1989). CR is also closely tied with radical feminism, which aims to weed out discrimination and segregation based on sex, and through a grassroots movement like socialist feminism, maintains that women's oppression is not a by-product of capitalist oppression but a 'primary cause' (Koedt, 1968).